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The tricky gigs are things where the pipes are heard on their own AND incorporated in thick orchestration, at different times. Tune strict JI (as pipers do) and your solo bits will sound great, but the orchestrated bits not so much (especially on F#, High G, and Low G). So then it comes down to some sort of compromise tuning, if you want to be as in tune as possible in both situations.

I have never tried ET tuning but in this situation, it might be worth trying the -4 cents tuning for high and low G and choosing between the ET or JI F# depending on how much that note is used (both the number of times and the time value of each instance) in the tune selection. Trying JI tuning for the rest of the notes might be worth a shot. It might even work with drones.

I've just watched one of the video clips.....Amazing bloody Grace again.
Perhaps pipers should only agree to take part on a reciprocal basis in which the Piano Guys turn up at the pipe bands next gig and get to play Chopsticks.

Ian

BWAHAHAHAA! I almost shot coffee out of my nose. I would love to be a fly on the wall for that discussion with some self important classical pianist

No dis-respect to all the brilliant non-self-important classical pianists out there.

I did this with my pipe band last year and it was a blast. Yes it's "just Amazing Grace" but that's not the point. I think it's wonderful that they incorporate live pipers into their show instead of just relying on the track. You get quite a charge from playing live in front of an audience of over 6,000 people!

I'm sure the headliners will, as will the sound techs, the cameramen, the stagehands…

Yes, we're getting paid this time. We kinda got stiffed 2 years ago (but did get free tickets for our families). That's not the point from my perspective however... it's a short easy gig that's fun as hell and gets TONS of applause and cheers.

The point about being paid is interesting. Musicians who play for a living know the importance of being paid fairly and promote that among all musicians. Beginning-level players and hobbyists often perform for little or no remuneration, which professional musicians have to compete against for gigs. There is another class of musician as well... those who are accomplished but play for the enjoyment of it, without much concern about being paid for every gig or being paid well at all.

That said, our group played with the Piano Guys recently for their Los Angeles show and we were paid fairly and treated really well. They were a pleasure to perform with... a real class act. Those guys are so passionate about music, they played and played during sound check for the pure enjoyment of it, not stopping even when the preparation was obviously done.

So, last time we did this, it was relatively early in their tour- the first tour using pipers I believe. They didn't have any music for us ("watch the video"), so at that time, I wrote up the score for us so we'd all be on target. [it's amazing grace of course, but with different timing and many embellishments removed..]

THIS time, they not only provided music (not that we need it now LOL), but they also have chanters!! I guess they finally learned the challenges of getting us pipers to the right pitch. This is pretty awesome in my opinion and the note below is spot on and a bit funny :-)

From an email we received from them a few days ago:
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"Bagpiper Note: Please let the pipers know that we tour with Bb Chanters they can use for the performance.

Bagpipes should be tuned to 440Hz, pipers will need Bb Chanters to do that. Most pipers know this, they just don't want to drop $200 on chanters they'll rarely use... instead, they tune as low as they can with their standard chanters at 476Hz. This makes our FOH Sound Engineer (Ben) cry - and we don't wanna see a grown man cry."